SLs have been driven by Hollywood stars and starlets, pop singers, rock guitarists, dancers, racing drivers; even princesses – the SL was the distinctly un-British car which Diana, Princess of Wales, was chided by the press for buying.

1. SL stands for Super Light and was first used for the 1952 W194 racing car, which pioneered the use of gull-wing doors.

It was Mercedes’ first post-war competition car, and while it lacked power, its extraordinary lightness and aerodynamic efficiency made it the most successful sport racing car of its day, coming first and second at Le Mans and winning the gruelling Carrera Panamericana.

2. The 1954 300 SL road car is now broadly accepted to be the world’s first supercar. It was also the first production road car of any kind to use direct fuel injection. Its claimed top speed was 154mph, giving it unprecedented performance for a street machine when it was launched more than half a century ago.

Credit:Charlie Magee

3. The 300 SL is related only in name to the 300 SLR racing car (above) in which Stirling Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia.

The SLR was, in fact, a W194 Formula 1 machine with enclosed bodywork and an even bigger eight-cylinder engine. However a 300 SL came fifth in the same race, driven by American driver John Fitch, a barely believable feat for a near showroom standard road car.

4. Second-generation SLs, introduced in 1963, are known as Pagodas because of the way the inward slanting pillars on the factory hard-top recalled such far eastern architecture. It was never an official name, any more than there was ever a Ferrari called a Daytona, but is how those in the know refer to them today.

5. The SL "Pagoda" was the first sports car in the world to be fitted with a rigid passenger safety cell and specifically designed front and rear crumple zones.

It also had a joint in its steering column so that in the event of a head on collision you didn’t become impaled upon your car. In safety terms, then, it was streets ahead of anything similar available at the time.

6. The third-generation SL was the longest serving of all. Sales started in 1971 and continued for 18 years straight, and while over time different engines and gearboxes became available, it remained remarkably faithful to the original design throughout.

The beloved transport of Bobby Ewing, at least until Pamela drove one under a truck, a total of over 237,000 were built, more than any other SL before or since.

Credit:Barcroft Media

7. There have been some less likely rally cars (a man called Bill Bengry entered a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow into the 1970 London to Mexico rally and finished it), but few that combined apparent lack of suitability with conspicuous success.

The 1978 South American rally was meant to be the toughest of all, an 18,000-mile flog around the entire continent. Mercedes prepared four 450 SLC coupes with near standard engines, and while one retired, the survivors romped home in first, second and fourth places. Third and fifth went to other Mercedes, too.

Credit:Royce Rumsey

8. The fourth-generation SL was introduced in 1989 and was the world’s first car to contain an invisible roll hoop that would deploy in 0.3sec if sensors detected the car was about to flip, although rumours have it that hump backed bridges taken with sufficient gusto can also cause it to deploy.

9. Generation five was introduced in 2001 and was the first SL to come with a retractable hard-top as standard. Initially available only with a 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine, this was later joined by a V6, a supercharged V8 and a truly bonkers V12.

10. The current model has received a couple of major updated during its life, and was the first SL to be given the "Black Series" treatment. Indeed, the 670bhp SL65 AMG Black of 2008 remains to this day the most powerful production car of any kind in Mercedes-Benz's history.

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